Taylor Thomas
Martha Marcy May Marlene Reflection
Martha Marcy May Marlene is a movie directed by Sean Durkin that involves the use of narratives and folk songs that constantly create different moods in the film. The use of camera direction focuses on scenes and does a wonderful job of attracting the audience to the performances in the movie, which involves switching between the past and the present. Two characters have been used extensively to tell the story of a young woman, Martha, who fails to create the common impressions among her peers, as would be expected. Martha joins a commune but later on escapes to receive the care of her sister. This happens after experiencing some sociological challenges. This puts her in an abnormal state, and it becomes impossible for one to predict whether or not she can return to the normal state.
The film begins at the end of the story, an approach that can be considered as one that results in loss of momentum for the story being narrated. However, this presents a wonderful opportunity for one artistic tool, the flashback, to be used in various parts of the movie. Although it can sometimes get confusing, I generally like movies that use that kind of unstructured plot line.
In the film, Martha portrays the complexity of her character as she performs her role in the movie. She succeeds in keeping the audience in suspense with her lively character, especially when she arrives at the commune. She also, at this instance, appears as an impressionable woman. This is evident when another character, Patrick, convinces her that the emotional problems she was facing were caused by the people in her past. This, however, brings her problems she had not foreseen when Patrick draws her into a downward spiral that causes her a lot of damage.
The transition between the scenes achieved by the film directors creates a ‘dreamy’ effect. There is detachment from the ordinary